Just as it had in the Confederations Cup final last month against Brazil, the U.S. took a lead it couldn’t hold. And this time, it cost the Americans a 2-1 loss to Mexico yesterday in Mexico City, turning qualifying for next year’s World Cup into a dogfight again.

The U.S. fought hard, and took an early lead, thanks to Charlie Davies. But the U.S. gave up the equalizer 10 minutes later to Isreal Castro. Eventually, the heat, smog and 7,350-foot altitude at Azteca Stadium wore down the Americans before Miguel Sabah scored the game-winner in the 82nd minute.

“It’s hard to play here. It wears you out. It’s just exhausting,” said U.S. star Landon Donovan. “[Castro] hits an absolute dream goal; you give that guy 1,000 shots like that, he’s not going to score that goal. It was unfortunate for us, then at the end they get a little lucky bounce in the box. It’s frustrating.”

The U.S. (3-1-2, 10 points) is tied for second place in the CONCACAF standings with Honduras (3-1-2), which was a 4-0 winner last night over first-place Costa Rica (12 points).

The top three teams will book their tickets to the World Cup in South Africa, while No. 4 faces a playoff with South America’s No. 5. Last night, the U.S. had a chance to finish off Mexico (3-3, 9 points) and came up short.

Despite losing just three of their last 15 matches with Mexico, the U.S. remained winless in Mexico City, where the Americans are 0-19-1 in the 105,000-seat cauldron that is Azteca Stadium. It’s easy to see why.

After Carlos Bocanegra got sucked out wide, a tiring Donovan saw Efrain Juarez beat him to the goal line. Jay DeMerit tackled the ball away in the box, but it fell right to an unmarked Sabah, who roofed it before Oguchi Onyewu could close him down.

The U.S. spent too much time on its heels defending. Few U.S. players stood out other than Davies, late sub Stuart Holden and goalkeeper Tim Howard, who stoned Gio Dos Santos at close range.

In the ninth minute, Davies took a Donovan through ball and slotted a shot past Mexico keeper Francisco Guillermo Ochoa. It was the first time the U.S. had ever led in Azteca Stadium.

The U.S. made the mistake of dropping too deep, and eventually Cuauhtemoc Blanco found an unmarked Castro, who unleashed a shot from 30 yards out that sailed just over Howard and knuckled like a Tim Wakefield pitch, hitting the crossbar and bouncing down into the goal.

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In last night’s doubleheader at Giants Stadium, Venezuela downed Colombia 2-1 and Jamaica and Ecuador played to a scoreless tie.